A worked example

Claim Social Security at 62, or wait for 70?

Ruth and Alan, both 61, retired with $1,000,000 pre-tax, $100,000 in Roth accounts, and a $500,000 brokerage account, spending $90,000 a year. Their SSA statements put their combined benefit at $28,000 a year claimed at 62, or $49,600 waiting until 70.

“What if we claim at 62 and take the $28,000 — versus holding out for the $49,600 at 70?”

What the projection shows

The same retirement, twice: claiming early starts the checks now but fills every later bracket sooner; waiting leaves eight years where taxable income is unusually low — the window Roth conversions fit in — and then a larger, inflation-adjusted check that raises the income floor under every RMD year. The compare view prices what the SSA statement can't: how much of each benefit is actually taxed (that share depends on the other income next to it), what each path does to lifetime tax and to wealth after the tax still owed on it, and how the answer shifts at the horizon you choose. Consequences under your stated figures — the engine never computes a benefit from a claiming age.